A new devblog from Raph Koster goes into the themes of Stars Reach and how Playable Worlds supports previously discussed design pillars with the core content and emphasis on learning to work together, collaborate, and sustain a planet together.
In Stars Reach lore, humans come from genetic experiments by a powerful civilization known as the Old Ones. They didn’t take care and guide humanity and humanity made a mess of everything and ruined the homeworlds. Hope, optimism, and second chances are not just thematic elements, mechanics supporting those themes are important.
“In order to learn to live in harmony, we need difference,” Koster says, and this informs gameplay. In the game, resources will not repopulate endlessly. A certain level of care is needed, and this is another way that Stars Reach aims to get people invested in the game world around them. Some people will just use whatever they need and not care about others, but in leaving things in players' hands, the hope is that a more collaborative effort will emerge, and that collaborative effort will perhaps look different on each of the planets. Progression systems include collaborative progress.
Part of that is economic interdependence, which starts with the choice to make sure that combat and looting monsters isn't the biggest driver of economic value. People with different specializations will depend on one another Every group has to decide how to allocate resources, manage and allocate the space in the world. With that, it’s also about learning how to work together, negotiate, compromise, decide how much to build up the world and what you might gain or lose.
It’s designed to be fun, but as Koster previously stated, there’s room for some heavier topics within an optimistic game. And there will inevitably be some people who would rather let everything burn. “We have procedural, simulated worlds,” he says, “If you wreck one, we can just generate another”.
